Tag: NEws Zealand

Maritime officers from seven states around the Pacific have gathered in Wellington, New Zealand, this week, studying how to prepare their countries for audit by IMO. The training course, being delivered by the IMO, is an opportunity to improve maritime safety standards across the Pacific, according to Maritime NZ‘s Chief Executive, Keith Manch.

The union that represents New Zealand shipping crews is backing calls for mandatory shipping lanes on the New Zealand coast

NZ desperately needs a shipping policy The Maritime Union is calling for a complete overhaul of New Zealand shipping policy to avoid a repeat of the Rena disaster.Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the main problem is that New Zealand desperately needs a shipping policy.Mr Fleetwood says the jailing of the Rena's Master and Mate was a case of attacking the symptom but not the disease of deregulated Flag of Convenience shipping (Editorial note: see moreinformation about Flag of Convenience shipping below)."The approach for the last generation has been for Government to abdicate its responsibility to ensure standards in the maritime industry."As long as Flag of Convenience shipping was given a "free ride" in New Zealand waters, Rena style incidents were "almost guaranteed"."The surprising thing is how long it took for a shipping disaster of this type to happen, not that it did happen."Mr Fleetwood says the Australian Government this week passed Shipping Reform Package bills to regenerate Australian owned and Australian crewed shipping.New Zealand, by contrast, was still locked into failed deregulation policies from the 1980s."Do we need more Rena style disasters to get the same action on merchant shipping in our waters?"Mr Fleetwood says ...

About 385 tons of oil initially spilled into the ocean, Salvage crews have successfully removed all the remaining oil from a cargo ship that ran aground on a New Zealand reef, avoiding a worse environmental disaster.The vessel Rena grounded on the Astrolabe reef near Tauranga on Oct. 5 and authorities feared the worst as about 385 tons of oil initially spilled into the ocean, fouling local beaches.But in a stop-start effort, salvage crews began pumping oil in the days after the grounding while bad weather threatened to tear the ship apart.On Monday, Maritime New Zealand announced it had finished pumping 1,454 tons of oil from the ship and was sending a sea crane to the vessel to begin removing some of the 1,280 containers that remain on board.New Zealand's government is welcoming the news.Source: Huffington Post